Update on Neville & Yoda

Neville with Yoda on top

Neville & Yoda both got adopted out when they were barely over 7 grams. Now are both over 60. Look how cute they are!

Tiny Tim Update

The weather was nice enough this afternoon that I took Tiny Tim outside to get some direct sunshine. Direct sun gives him the best kind of UVBs he needs for treating his severe Metabolic Bone Disease. 

I use a dark colored cloth in the pan to attract more heat & light.

He's SO cute!

He's started getting sleepy from crawling around so much.

He's out. He took several tiny power naps before crawling around again. 

Happy Thanksgiving! from our Zoo to yours!

I got to see the Color Babies today!

Today I helped transport a black tree monitor lizard (see below) from Layton to Tooele. 

In Tooele, I went to RockStar Pets (one of my mostest favoritest pet stores EVER) and I got to see the three color babies they bought from me last month. They are SO big! And healthy!

Here's Purple, waiting by the door for his morning meal. He got too feisty to be with the other two, so they put him in his own tank.

Here's Pink & Yellow! One is on the front glass, the other is on the log (right under the exclamation point in the picture).

There's a good chance they'll go to new homes this week. Hooray!

Maybe I do like baby beardies...

.... or at least I like this one. Ziggy is SO cute. He loves to be held at night so he can sleep. Sometimes I can wrap him up in his softie blanket and sometimes he'll crawl out and lay on my hand. He's lively & healthy & silly.

And this little guy will be up for adoption soon too. I'm trying to get him over 10 grams and then he'll be ready to go.

Full Circle-- Nigel's Last Vet Visit

Isn't he gorgeous??  

Nigel had his last arm vet visit this morning. After a year of poking & prodding & scraping & infections & finally an amputation, Nigel's arm is healthy. He had his stitches removed on his stump. He's acting normal, he's eating great, and he's putting weight back on.

Nigel is where this whole crazy, draining, rewarding, expensive rescue process got started for me. He was my first "Free" beardie which means, of course, that he was the *most* expensive. :) He is gorgeous & healthy & loved to pieces now. He is a happy ending story, for sure.

Today he's hanging out with me while his momma is at school. He's going to be sunning himself in my kitchen window. Good thing it's sunny today!

His little stump- doesn't slow him down a bit!

LOVE these two pictures!

Nope, no one here except us chicks!

She's so cool looking!

The Dark Side of Rescue

A friend brought a baby beardie to me tonight. He was so sick. He had blood coming out of his mouth from mouth wounds and possibly a broken jaw from being force fed. He was in terrible shape. I wasn't willing to count him out, but I didn't have much hope.

I wrapped him in a softie and tucked him in my shirt. He died just a few moments ago. This poor beardie was stuck in a plastic box in the back room of a pet store for over a month! A MONTH! They didn't follow corporate company policy and they never took him to a vet. They let him die slowly and painfully. They forced him to eat crickets and worms, they forced critical care down his throat, they forced him so much that his poor little jaw broke. They stuck in their sick room on October 19th! I totally could have saved him at that point.

I'm so tired right now that I can only be half angry. This little nameless beardie died for NO reason. He could have been saved had a manager done his job.

The lil guy will be buried in my herb garden tomorrow along side the other babies who have passed on. Sickly babies break my heart a little bit at a time-- especially when they didn't have to die.

-------------Update 11/25/13 ---------------------

My friend who rescued the baby named him Oengus, an Irish god of love, youth, and poetic inspiration.

Pickle, rescue 24.2

Mr Pickle came back today. I'll see if I can work on him to help him be more social & friendly. I'm not sure what happened to him with his first owners for the first couple months of his life, but it has made him fearful towards *every*thing! Poor guy.

Good News-- no, GREAT news!

Tiny Tim decided to chow down on breakfast this morning! Phew!

Yesterday I grated some yellow squash and then soaked it overnight with calcium syrup, calcium powder, and probiotics. He is eating that with great vigor this morning! Hooray!

Ziggy, rescue number 33

I took in Ziggy today. He's a 6 gram, 2 month old baby with a bent tail. He's a good eater and will be easy to rehabilitate and rehome.

He'll be my 11th baby this year. Yeah, I know what I said about babies.... :)

Beardie Roll Call or Our House feels Slightly Empty

Toothless

Spike

Max

Hurley (who is leaving Monday)

SweetPea- the lone female

Our boy named Lizzie

Down to only 6. Raji got adopted out last night. Yeah! All the others have gone home or been adopted. Dr Folland was teasing me that if I'm down to 8, I'd better load up! ;) I think we're okay with just a few for now.

P.S. taking pics of the beardies in their tanks showed me how dirty the glass has gotten! whoops! Time to wipe some glass down.

Cannoli, our Diva Iguana

She's cute! And large! And still gets lost in the house sometimes. Like the yesterday when I found her on the stairs, posing with a pumpkin. 

It's always a good day with Cannoli when she doesn't make me bleed. :) 

Tiny Tim Update

Tiny Tim went outside with my two other tortoises yesterday and had a great time. The direct sunlight is super helpful for him in treating his severe Metabolic Bone Disease. 

Today Tiny Tim went to the vet with Nubs to get checked. He's pretty sickly and has pretty severe MBD. I'll try getting him to eat on his own this week and if that doesn't work, Dr Folland will teach me how to tube feed him.

He's getting his sun time right now. The direct UVB rays will help him be healthy. Just to make sure he stays warm enough, I put a heat lamp on top of the cage.

Nubs is Going Home!

Two weeks ago today, Nubs looked this: 

Barely hanging on to life.

Today, on the day he is going home!, Nubs went back to Parrish Creek to meet two of the people who helped me to save his life:

It's hard to believe that it is the same beardie.

I can never say enough good things about my reptile vets at Parrish Creek Vets. 


Snuggling with Nubs while we wait for Dr Folland to come in.

My Dream.........

I look forward to the day that I don't have to poke sickly animals in the morning to make sure they are still alive.

That's all.

Quick Update

Nigel went home and is doing GREAT! Yeah!

Volcano went to a great home today! Yeah!

Nubs goes home on Monday! Yeah!


Raji is still available for adoption. Tiny Tim is eating, but his eyes are still bad and his shell is still soft. Spike's tubes are working and I've been able to get a lot of pus out of his beard in the last two days. Hurley will be headed home next month too (been babysitting him).

And I honestly don't think I'm strong enough to give up Toothless. Several have offered. I don't think I can do it. I think he'll have to stay. Maybe one day if the perfect home comes along.... until then, I am as close to perfect as you can get for my little buddy. He's my "Toofers." He came to me at 60-something grams. He's now 99 grams. I can't wait for him to be over 100!

He played on my bed tonight before snuggling in my hoodie & falling asleep

Snuggling with Nubs

Hooray! Hooray! Nubs pooped today. What a relief.

Tonight I held him on my chest on a heating pad and he snuggled in and fell asleep. He's such a sweet thing that loves to be held & snuggled.

I'm taking Nubs back to the vet on Monday so we can get a picture with Dr Folland who helped to save his life. Then Nubs is going home! Thanks to all who said you'd be willing to take him. The lady who rescued him is taking him back and she is SO excited for him. He will be very, very spoiled. You can follow him on Facebook too to get updates.

Our next goal is to get him eating & pooping regularly.

Hard Choices

Originally I started off with 1 beardie, Lizzie. Then a friend asked me to take her 2 special beardies, Max & SweetPea. The other beardies came and went, but these three always stayed. Then Toothless came to me and I fell in love with him.

Every night he snuggles into my shirt and sleeps. He's the sweetest, nicest, cutest beardie ever. Which makes him totally & completely easy to place. He stole my heart and I decided to keep him.

Then Spike came back to me. Spike has been bounced around so many times in his life that I hate to do it again. But every beardie that stays takes up space, making it harder for me to take in future needier beardies.

So I'm contemplating finding a good home for Toothless, knowing how much joy he could bring to someone else and knowing it would free me up to take on the harder cases that no one else wants. If you think you could adore Toothless the way I do and snuggle with him and love him and carry him around in your shirt at night, please let me know and I'll think about it. :) I can't promise I'll adopt him out, but I will consider other homes.

Tiny Tim

Last night, I took Tiny Tim, a tiny, sickly, neglected little Sulcata tortoise. His previous owners decided he needed to be more colorful, so they painted his shell. UGH! He's in a sick tank now and I'll work today on getting him warm, fed, and some sun.

It's hard to say how good his chances of success are at this point. I've never had a Sulcata tortoise before and certainly not one this small. Time to do some research.

Nubs' Next Hurdle

Nubs is putting on weight-- he's up to 240 grams. He eats great and is enjoying food. I still give him Critical Care formula once a day to help boost his nutrient levels back up. 

Every chance I get, I take him outside in the sun. The Critical Care has enough calcium for him and the direct sunlight helps him metabolize it. It honestly amazes me that he doesn't have more symptoms of Metabolic Bone Disease.

These are outside pictures from Sunday when he loved sitting on my black skirt and soaking in the heat and light.

Today I gave him a bath to see I could get him to poop. Instead he took a nice long drink of water.

Then I took him outside to dry and to warm up.

The white towel wasn't warm enough so I moved him to a soft blanket on the grass. 

He immediately decided he wanted to walk on the grass so I let him.

It's been almost a week since Nubs started eating again and it's about time for him to start pooping. If he doesn't, it could signal some intestinal distress or problem. I don't think  I've ever been so anxious for a beardie to poop! :)

I plan to ask my vet at what point I should be worried and if there is something I can do to help inspire him to go. Until then, we'll do daily baths since most beardies love to go potty in water.

Sickly Spike and his Adventures in Veterinary Medicine

Three weeks ago I took in Spike because he was struggling to breathe. We discovered he had two big abscesses in his throat that were constricting his airway. We put him on antibiotics and the abscesses cleared up. But then the infection spread to his beard. I tried treating him at home for the past two weeks, but the infection was more than I could handle. I even attempted to make an incision to drain the fluid & pus, but it needed more aggressive surgery. 

Today I took Spike back to Parrish Creek and Dr Echols used his surgery tools to clean out Spike's beard as best he could. Then he created a flushing tube out of a feeding tube that I could use to keep his beard open to flush it out twice a day for the next 4 weeks.

Spike is NOT thrilled with the new device. He keeps eyeing it warily. It will help me keep the area clean though. Poor beardie. He's had a tough life this year. Hopefully we can get him all healthy by the end of the year and let 2014 be a good year for him.